already a landowner--land monopoly is checked
and occupancy for use assured. Meanwhile there is plenty of genuine
settlement; every year sees many hundred fresh homes made and tracts
reclaimed from the wilderness.

[Illustration: PICTON--QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND

Photo by HENRY WRIGHT.]

Quite as keen has been the fighting over the principle of State
repurchase of private lands with or without the owner's consent. It
was a favourite project of Sir George Grey's; but it did not become
law until he had left public life, when it was carried by the most
successful and determined of the Liberal Ministers of Lands, John
McKenzie, who has administered it in a way which bids fair to leave an
enduring mark on the face of the Colony. Under this law L700,000 has
been spent in buying-forty-nine estates, or portions of estates, for
close settlement. The area bought is 187,000 acres. A few of these
have, at the time of writing, not yet been thrown open for settlement;
on the rest 2,252 human beings are already living. They pay a rent
equal to 5.2 per cent. on the cost of the land to the Government. Even
taking into account interest on the purchase money of land not yet
taken up, a margin remains in favour of the Treasury. Nearly 700 new
houses and L100,000 worth of improvements testify to the genuine
nature of the occupation. As a rule there is no difficulty in buying
by friendly arrangement between Government and proprietor. The latter
is commonly as ready to sell as the former to buy. The price is
usually settled by bargaining of longer or shorter duration. Twice
negotiations have failed, and the matter has been laid before the
Supreme Court, which has statutory power to fix the price when the
parties fail to agree. It must be remembered that as a rule large
holdings of land mean something quite different in New Zealand from
anything they signify to the English mind. In England a great estate
is peopled by a more or less numerous tenantry. In New Zealand it is,
as a rule, not peopled at all. Sheep roam over its grassy leagues,
cared for by a manager and a few shepherds. Natural and proper as this
may be on the wilder hills and poorer soils, it is easy to see how
unnatural and intolerable it appears in fertile and accessible
districts. In 1891 there were nearly twelve and a half million acres
held in freehold. Of these rather more than seven millions were in the
hands of 584 owners, none of whom held less than five thousand acres.